i have to give the book a rating of four stars. it has a good storyline. starting in paris' louvre museum, it visits famous places like london's westminster abbey, scotland's rosslyn chapel, etc. it goes at a very fast pace and has many twists and turns. dan brown is a genius, really, combining history, famous figures, art, eccentric characters (it helps that silas is an albino), religion, conspiracy, the police, landmarks, mathematics, symbology and of course, crytology (code-breaking) in one book to make it a really exciting read.

the main characters are Robert Langdon, an American symbologist with Harvard University and Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist with the DCPJ (French CID). they investigate the curious death of a Louvre curator, Jacques Saunière, who happens to be Sophie's grandfather. Jacques left a code for Sophie and Robert to crack, which would ultimately lead them to Scotland, which bears the true secret of Sophie's family, and at the same time, a quest for the so called Holy Grail. in between, they are caught in a police chase, murder attempts, all while trying to break clever clues set by Jacques.

by using fictitious characters and a fictitious storyline together with a factual backdrop (using real places and organisations - Opus Dei, Vatican), Dan Brown makes his big lie seem like a reality. the book alleges that Jesus Christ is not the Divine Son of God and that He was made Divine through a vote by a council that met in 400AD, 400 years after Jesus' death. and it also alleges that the Bible is not true and was compiled by Roman Emperor Constantine as a political tool and glorifies pagan religion and the so called sacred feminine. it also claims that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene and that the bloodline is carried on till today, protected by a group called the Priory of Sion, which practised paganism and includes famous ppl like da vinci, issac newton and victor hugo as Grand Masters. at first glance, it seems very believable, and the way Dan Brown argues his point is convincing, even. however, upon researching, u realise it is all a bunch of lies.
(feel free to click on the hyperlinks)
firstly, let's talk about the priory of Sion. it's not an organisation formed in 1099 to protect the 'bloodline', but rather, it is an French organisation created in 1956 to campaign for cheaper public housing. the priory's grand master, a certain Pierre Plantard, forged documents that alleged the priory as being an organisation to protect the bloodline and included famous members like da vinci, however, he admitted in a court case that these documents were false and forged. therefore, what dan brown alleges in the book is totally different from the priory of sion in reality. by using the priory to support his claim that the Jesus had a wife and a daughter, dan brown gives a convincing arguement. but since the priory is none of the sort, therefore the allegation that Jesus had a wife and a daughter is totally and utterly false.

the last supper is also used by dan brown as evidence, claiming that Jesus had a wife and she was Mary Magdalene. he claims that the person sitting to Jesus' right was a woman, and therefore concluded that she was Mary Magdelene. using common sense, how in the world would leonardo noe if mary magdelene was there right? and even if she was there, would she be seated at Jesus' right hand. anyway, the reality is that the person sitting next to Jesus is not a woman, but a man. he looks feminine because artists in the renaissance era used feminine features on men to define youthfulness. here's evidence:

the person here was drawn by da vinci also. it's hard to determine if he is a man or woman. in actual fact, this is a man, drawn with feminine features to define and highlight his youthfulness.

therefore, the person at Jesus' right hand in the picture is a man, it looks feminine because of the artist's drawing to highlight its youthfulness and also because after centuries of rot, restoration changed much of the details of the original drawing, making it inaccurate.

u realise, now by proving that the priory of sion and the supposedly hidden meaning in the last supper is false, the entire spine of the book is ripped off and it bears no basis at all and all its arguments are false. and im not finished yet, there'll be more i'll blog abt the da vinci code.

to conclude, the da vinci code is a fantastic book with a great storyline and many interesting parts like when they talked about the golden ratio, PHI, and how disney is supposedly pagan. it's a very good book to read, but read with discernment and realise that this attack against a globally recognised religion with over a billion followers should not be believed.